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posted by cmn32480 on Monday September 07 2015, @06:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the public-money-for-private-profit dept.

Common Dreams reports

The Seattle Times reports that

The ruling--believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country--overturns the law [I-1240] voters narrowly approved in 2012 allowing publicly funded, but privately operated, schools.

Teacher and author Mercedes Schneider offers more on the Act:

As is true of charter schools nationwide, the charters in Washington State (up to the current ruling) were eligible for public funding diverted from traditional public schools. Charter schools were approved via a November 2012 ballot initiative (I-1240, the Charter Schools Act) in which charters were declared to be "common schools" despite their not being subject to local control and local accountability. And also like America's charters in general, Washington's charters are not under the authority of elected school boards.

Thus, Washington voters had approved to give public money to private entities--a one-way street that provided no means for such funds to overseen by the public.

[...] The new ruling (pdf)[1] states that charters, "devoid of local control from their inception to their daily operation", cannot be classified as "common schools," nor have "access to restricted common school funding."

[...] "The Supreme Court has affirmed what we've said all along--charter schools steal money from our existing classrooms, and voters have no say in how these charter schools spend taxpayer funding," said Kim Mead, president of the [Washington Education Association], in a statement.

"Instead of diverting taxpayer dollars to unaccountable charter schools, it's time for the Legislature to fully fund K-12 public schools so that all of Washington's children get the quality education the Constitution guarantees them," Mead continued.

The Associated Press reports that the state had one charter school last year, and eight more have opened in the past few weeks.

I pity Ms. Schneider's students if she routinely starts sentences with conjunctions--especially consecutive, redundant conjunctions.

[1] I had trouble with the connection.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @11:07PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @11:07PM (#233505)

    It has little to do with contracts. Since the schools were established under a law (recently found in conflict with the constitution of the state), and funded under the same law, what now falls away is their funding.

    As I see it they can fold, or go private, or convert to homeschooling collectives.

    As for astroturfing, I don't think that they'll need to. All those parents who lined up to get their kids into a charter school, regardless of whether or not they made it through the lottery, are probably going to be pretty darned upset about this. Astroturf? If I were their PR guy I'd be worried about finding a way to keep the level of outrage and fury under control, not fake more.

    And now we have a state commission for charter schools with no school funding sources - brilliant! I would expect the bureaucrats in that commission to spend more time lobbying from within the system to save their jobs, than the schools.

    You say that perhaps charters will make things even worse. You may be right (although in many places they have made things substantially better). The question you aren't answering is why all these people are so angry, and why all the spending for decade upon decade on the state's schools hasn't made them the envy of the world, and why people are casting around for something, anything to get their kids a better education, and what would be a better offering.

    I'll also notice that charter schools have something of a track record of making public schools straighten up and fly right. Maybe you have an alternative plan to fit that need?

    Don't be shy. Let us know all the details.